


Once More, With Feeling

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Affection, Bonding, Crying, Emotional, Family, Fluff, Fluffy, Friendship, Gen, Hogwarts, Love, Metamorphmagus, Metamorphosis, Pancakes, Photographs, Tears, teen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2015-02-26
Packaged: 2018-03-15 09:27:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3441998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Harry tries to be a good semi-dad, and Teddy just wants his parents.<br/>[Written for (and inspired by) the Padfoot to my Moony, Amy]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once More, With Feeling

Harry had heard Teddy cry plenty of times before – he'd practically raised him, after all, and every parent hears their child cry. Grazed knees, a poor result on a test, frustration from an argument...Harry had been there to comfort Teddy after all of them.

This, however, sounded different.

Nine year old James and his younger siblings were all in the back garden, flitting about on broomsticks under the supervision of their mother, who enjoyed watching them almost as much as they enjoyed playing. Harry had been on his way out, when he heard the pitiful sobs.

“Teddy?”

Through the door, Harry heard the sobs suddenly subside.

“Come in!” came Teddy's quiet, calm voice, no hint of his sobbing within it. Harry slowly opened the door and entered the room, which had originally been a guest room but had quickly become Teddy's during his early childhood due to the amount of time he spent with his 'sort of family'. A smile almost crossed Harry's face as he thought back to little five year old Teddy jumping up and down with excitement as he selected a paint colour, before promptly knocking over a whole shelf of paints. He was _so_ like his mother, it was rather uncanny.

“Ted? Are you okay?”

Teddy was lying out on his bed, his face turned away from the door. Immediately, Harry noticed that his hair was not it's usual electric blue, but a sandy brown colour, with flecks of gold throughout. However, it was not until Teddy rolled over that he saw the real change.

Teddy had morphed his face into the image of his teenaged father. Same golden whisky eyes, same long nose, same delicate mouth. In this case, however, his face was streaked with tears and those golden eyes were redrimmed. Clutched in Teddy's arms was the book of photographs that Harry had given him for his eighth birthday.

“Oh, Ted...”

As Harry sat down on the bed beside his fourteen year old semi-son, Teddy slowly morphed his face back to normal, but allowed his hair to remain like the senior Lupin's had been.

“I...can you miss someone that you never knew?”

Harry sighed, and recalled the hundreds of moments throughout his life when he'd longed for his father and mother. The resurrection stone. The incident in the graveyard, when he was the same age as Teddy. Merlin's pants. Harry was in over his head, and he knew it, but hadn't he always been?

“Of course you can. I miss a version of Ron that didn't constantly forget things.” Harry smiled briefly at his weak attempt at humour, and Teddy managed a tiny smile back, still clutching the book.

“Can you tell me more about mum and dad?”

“Lupin...Remus...was the best teacher that I ever had, hands down – though don't tell McGonagall that, she'd probably come through the floo and assign me detention for being cheeky.”

Teddy laughed, but stared at Harry, a hungry look in his eyes. He loved hearing the same old stories over and over again. Occasionally, Harry would remember something new and tell him, and Teddy would delight in it.

“When he caught me with the Marauder's Map, though...he went mental. Scary stuff. I know exactly where you got your temper from, Ted – though your mum was pretty hot-tempered too. If anyone except for your dad called her by her full name, she got very angry very quickly. Her hair turned red when she was in a temper, like you.”

Tears had began to roll down Teddy's face again, but he brushed them away absent-mindedly, listening hard. “How did they get together?”

Laughter exploded from Harry, and he smiled a little as he spoke. “Your mum had a massive crush on your dad, but he was insistent that because he was a werewolf they couldn't go out. Then McGonagall gave them a telling off and they eventually got together.”

Teddy laughed too, holding a hand up to his mouth as he did so, tears still pouring. “Do you miss them, Harry?”

“A lot.” Harry immediately replied, reaching out and pulling Teddy into a tight hug. “Remus and Sirius were the only father figures I ever had and I miss them constantly. Remus was clever, so clever, but he was pretty funny too. He did some stupid things, but he was generally pretty brilliant. As for Tonks, she kept us all in stitches. She was incredibly clumsy – _much_ worse than you – but she was also very intelligent and kind.”

“Thanks, Harry.”

“No problem, Ted. I've heard that Andromeda is good at making pancakes...I can't promise I'll live up to her reputation, but I can make us some cheer-up pancakes if you'd like?”

Grinning, Teddy nodded, before brushing away the last tear. “Will these pancakes have chocolate smothered all over them, by any chance?”

“What else would they have all over them?”

* * *

 

“HARRY!”

Harry jumped violently as his wife marched into the kitchen from the back garden, their children now happily playing football together, an activity which they could do without supervision.

“Yes, dear?”

“I _must_ be hallucinating, but did I just see smoke?”

Harry coughed. Damn. The pancakes had gone excellently until one spontaneously set on fire, with no reasoning behind it. After a moment of panic, during which he and Teddy had shared an incredulous look, he'd yanked his wand from his pocket and cast a thin stream of water at it until the fire was out.

Evidently, Ginny had noticed the black smoke which had briefly enveloped the kitchen before Harry had performed a bit of crafty wandwork to vanish it.

“Yes, Gin, but there's rather a long story.”

Teddy laughed a little before settling more into his chair. This was almost better than pancakes. It was like watching his 'grandma' and 'grandad' Molly and Arthur Weasley 'discuss' something.

“Oh, is there? I'd love to hear it.”

“Well, everyone knows that pancakes are medically proven to improve moods-”

Ginny laughed and the passion in her eyes faded a little, making Harry himself smile.

“Myself and Teddy rather needed a little pick-me-up, so I set about making them.”

Ginny shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You're an idiot – I love you. Get the kids in, I'll make pancakes for everyone.”

Harry winked at Teddy over his wife's shoulder, and mouthed something.

“All part of the plan.”

 


End file.
